Sunday, 23 April 2017

Sits

Say "Sits" out loud and rather quickly . What do you think you've just said ?

Well , in most countries you might be assumed to have sneezed . But here in the C17th if you were frightfully fashionable and rather well off , you would have been talking about chintz ... glazed chintz in particular or , these days , you might be going to the Fries Museum to see their latest exhibition . There's a wonderful three hundred year-old silk kimono , magnificently preserved and vibrant , that's worth the trip alone .

When the Dutch East India Company managed to elbow their way into the market , picking up this beautifully hand painted or blockprinted cotton in India to exchange in Indonesia or Japan for spices and china , it became increasingly popular and pieces began to find their way back to Holland , to Hindeloopen in particular . There it inspired painted furniture , bed covers and the local women's costume and in fact you can still , in the old fishing ports , see women wearing dresses trimmed with chintz bonnets , decorative sleeves and aprons .

As eventually the handcarved blocks were brought back by returning East India Company employees and copied ; the dyeing techniques and the original processes simplified , and substances like buffalo urine , metal salts and saffron replaced with easier to get hold of materials , local factories made cheaper copies . Nearly everyone has some Hindeloopen patterned cotton around if they've inherited a grandmother's bed linen ... I've got pieces myself , bought in thrift shops and vintage stores .

But two hundred years ago , every scrap of this treasure was hoarded ; stored in airtight chests, sometimes for generations , and eked out to make bodices , baby clothes , collars and cuffs , mittens ...

And , of course , when totally past their best , the more modern pieces found their way to patchwork quilts . Needless to say , I would love to own this quilt

But what I really , really wanted was this very rich little girl's version of Barbie . A C19th doll and her chest of clothes . TWO straw hats !!

Oh yes , and the hem of this dress . For one of the more tomboyish Bennet sisters , perhaps.

About me

SmitoniusAndSonata is a mother and daughter collective blog.
London based Smitonius (Jessamy) makes one of a kind jewellery using vintage buttons, as well as a combination of beads from all over Europe: from lampwork ones by a range of UK artists to vintage and modern glass beads.
Sonata is a miniature quilt maker based in the North of Holland (Leeuwarden). Geraldine Keyzer is already known to collectors of Hitty dolls and owners of vintage dollhouses. She likes to use vintage as well modern cotton to create a range of quilts from simple One Patch to the more complex Grandmother's Garden.